Meet Cruz. Now say goodbye to Cruz. Cruz was a three-year-old Samoyed—think, like, a large white Pomeranian—who died the very week he competed at this year’s Westminster Dog Show and his “survivors—the handler and at least one of his owners—have not ruled out foul play,” the Times reports. The current thinking: poison, specifically rodent poison. But how did Cruz get a hold of poison? The Times,which amusingly sort of let loose with this story, notes that in attempts to find out, said survivors “have spent the days since his death retracing every paw step.”

The veterinarian who treated the dog does not think a dog-murderer slipped Cruz a vial of poison: “Dogs are dogs. It’s not anyone’s fault. They eat stuff; they get into things; they make bad decisions,” she said. Cruz’s handler, however, “said he believed that extreme animal rights activists, who have called dog shows and purebred competitions inhumane, might have been responsible.” PETA denies poisoning the dog—and, given that killing an animal would appear to conflict with the group’s stated mission of treating it ethically, we are inclined to believe them.